Pacific Rim

Rating: 9/10 (13 July 2013)

I candy-colored dreamworld from the man who brought us the Hellboy series, Pan's Labyrinth, and Blade II, Pacific Rim tells the story of a world in the not-to-distant future in which a portal has been created that connects our world to the world of the Kaiju, a species of giant monsters who's objective in life is to conquer a world then more right on to the next one. In response, the world has pooled together it's resources to create monsters of our own, giant robots called Jaegers, to combat these creatures. Our story follows Raleigh, a once great fighter who is struck by tragedy and leaves the Jaegers program altogether until he is thrust back into war.
I'm not going to spend much time talking about the story and characters because they aren't really the point. However, that's not to say they are bad; they're just familiar. Charlie Hunnam really immerses himself into this role of the antagonist and delivers a performance that I personally really enjoyed. All of the acting in general was passable. Some of the dialogue wasn't great and filled with clichés, but despite that Del Toro finds a way to keep you invested enough to the point where you still really care about these characters. Much like the characters, the story is pretty formulaic as well, but again Del Toro crafts it in a way that allows audiences to sink their teeth in enough.
No surprise, where this film excels is in it's action scenes. Beautifully colored and spectacularly filmed, Del Toro reaches into the part of your brain that's still 12-years-old and entertains the hell out of it. Staying away from "Transformeritis," Del Toro provides audiences with beautiful sweeping shots that allow us to really see how grand the whole spectacle is, making each hit all the more impactful and exciting.
Pacific Rim is the summer blockbuster I've been longing to see. While all the others this summer seemed to focus on darker elements, Pacific Rim is monsters fighting robots at it's most basic form, from a director you can tell really cares. THis is the most fun I've had at the theater all year.